Total Car Score Ranks Cars that Get Best Fuel Economy Boost

LOS ANGELES, April 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Total Car Score today (www.totalcarscore.com) released new figures that show which 2012 model cars and trucks get the greatest overall Total Car Score boost based on their fuel efficiency ratings.

Total Car Score provides a vehicle rating system that gives everyday consumers and automotive enthusiasts a way to easily compare the fuel efficiency of every vehicle on the market. A given vehicle's "Total Car Score" aggregates data from the top car review and rating sites to score a vehicle on a 1-100 scale, with most cars scoring between 60 and 90.

The Total Car Score system also employs a "Fuel Economy Factor" (FEF) to adjust a vehicle's score by taking its fuel efficiency into account. The FEF is determined by comparing a vehicle's average fuel economy (across all available drivetrains) with the average fuel economy of all other vehicles in its segment. For example, a compact sedan with an average fuel economy rating that's 3 miles-per-gallon (MPG) better than the average MPG for the entire Compact Sedan segment would receive a FEF of +3. Should a vehicle's average fuel economy be lower than the segment average, that vehicle's FEF would be a negative number. By checking the FEF box on each model page at the Total Car Score website, car and truck shoppers can add the FEF to a vehicle's Total Car Score to see how its fuel economy affects the score overall – for better or worse.

Most vehicles have a FEF of between 1 and 5 points (plus or minus), as car and truck makers strive to keep their vehicles' MPG ratings competitive with others in the segment. However, the FEF can have a large impact on the Total Car Scores of hybrid and alternative energy vehicles because their fuel economy is much higher than the conventionally powered vehicles in these segments. In fact, a strong FEF can push a vehicle's Total Car Score over the theoretically perfect score of 100.

Fuel Boost: 'Fuel Economy Factor' of the Best Hybrid & Alternative Drivetrain Cars

The car with the biggest boost to its Total Car Score, when the Fuel Economy Factor is included, is the 2012 Chevrolet Volt. The Chevy Volt's primary Total Car Score is 76.69, slightly below the Midsize Sedan Segment's average. But because the Volt's average fuel economy rating is 40 points higher than the segment's average, the (FEF) raises the Volt's Total Car Score to 116.69, a 52.16 percent increase.

Excluding all hybrids and alternative fuel cars, the vehicle with the biggest boost to its primary score when incorporating the FEF is the Fiat 500 Abarth. The 2012 Fiat 500 Abarth has a Total Car Score of 71.76, slightly below average. But the Abarth is part of the High Performance vehicle segment, and because its fuel economy ratings are so much higher than the other vehicles in that category, it gets a 10-point bump to its Total Car Score when the Fuel Economy Factor is applied. This gives the 2012 Fiat 500 Abarth a Total Car Score of 81.76, well above the segment average of 73.98.

"A vehicle's default Total Car Score does not include the Fuel Economy Factor," said Karl Brauer, editor in chief of Total Car Score. "But fuel economy has become perhaps the most important feature for today's car buyers, so we allow site visitors to easily roll it into a vehicle's Total Car Score if they want to. Our two lists include the models that had the biggest bump in their Total Car Score after taking the Fuel Economy Factor into consideration."

Hybrid & Alternative Drivetrain

The following is a list of the top ten hybrid or alternative fuel vehicles to receive the biggest boost to their Total Car Score when the Fuel Economy Factor (FEF) is considered:

Conventional Drivetrain

The following is a list of the top ten conventional drivetrain vehicles to receive the biggest boost to their Total Car Score when the Fuel Economy Factor (FEF) is considered:

About Total Car Score

TotalCarScore.com is an automotive research and comparison website that establishes a new industry-wide standard for ranking every car, truck, van and SUV/crossover on the market. TotalCarScore.com evaluates and ranks cars according to an aggregate score based on the most trusted automotive authorities available. The site also features original content, reviews and insights from a veteran automotive journalism and data team. For more information, please go to www.totalcarscore.com.

For more information, contact:
Raymee Alper for Total Car Score
314-968-7712
raymee (at) traffic-prm.com

SOURCE Total Car Score